Thank you for this! I was introduced to Bradstreet in an undergraduate Women’s Literature course in the 1990s, and she still resonates magnificently. It’s sad that we today must hyper politicize our poetry, and perhaps a more explicitly valued sense of history would allow us to relax and dig in to “little” literary marvels like hers.
History itself is contested space now -- even more than when I was in graduate school. I suppose some might see Bradstreet as embodying a form of white supremacy, given her metaphysical style and position of privilege. The notion of "firsts" carries this baggage, as well. But I find her poetry refreshingly free of Manifest Destiny and religious imperialism.
Perhaps you also know Phillis Wheatley's poetry? So good.
I had to look her up to refresh my memory, but yes, I think I encountered her in the same course, or perhaps the course in African-American Lit I took the following semester -- it was the same professor and there was considerable overlap! :)
Thank you for this! I was introduced to Bradstreet in an undergraduate Women’s Literature course in the 1990s, and she still resonates magnificently. It’s sad that we today must hyper politicize our poetry, and perhaps a more explicitly valued sense of history would allow us to relax and dig in to “little” literary marvels like hers.
History itself is contested space now -- even more than when I was in graduate school. I suppose some might see Bradstreet as embodying a form of white supremacy, given her metaphysical style and position of privilege. The notion of "firsts" carries this baggage, as well. But I find her poetry refreshingly free of Manifest Destiny and religious imperialism.
Perhaps you also know Phillis Wheatley's poetry? So good.
I had to look her up to refresh my memory, but yes, I think I encountered her in the same course, or perhaps the course in African-American Lit I took the following semester -- it was the same professor and there was considerable overlap! :)
You reveal the hidden to some and the so worthy. Thank you.